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Setting up a Local (WAMP) Web Server

Many developers choose to set up a development environment on their local machines. There any a few reasons why you would want to do this. Namely speed, security and control. Setting up a local web server isn't a big job and can be accomplished within just a few minutes.

The 4 major components to a web server are:

the operating system

the server

a server side scripting language

a database

In this article I am not going to talk about how to get each individual component up and running but rather I am going to focus on two Windows development environments, which are EasyPHP and WampServer.

Both are "WAMP" packages and offer the same components but have different interfaces.
For those of you not in the know, a WAMP server consists of Windows, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python. In this case, PHP is the language of choice. Also note that PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager are included in each package to allow you to interact with your databases.

The website url's and direct download links for each package can be found below:

Once the application of your choice has been downloaded. Double-click it and follow the installation wizard to install it on your system. Once that is complete, you have a local web server running on your system.

The Basics

These tools don't have a steep learning curve but there is some knowledge needed. You will be able to run your server just like any other program. (Assume these tips apply to both package's unless otherwise stated.)

You must place your directories and files in the www directory, if you wish to access them through the browser.

You will be able to access your server through a web browser by visiting the localhost address.
You can accomplish this by either going to http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/.
This will bring you into the "root" directory of your server, where you will be greated by some options.

In EasyPHP, you are shown a list of all the directories and files in the www directory. You must go to http://localhost/home/ to see additional links such as the PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager packages.
In WampServer, you will be able to see all the directories in the www directory and links to the database interfaces.

Connecting to a Database

When connecting your files to databases, the default settings are as follows. You can set up databases using the database interfaces mentioned earlier.

Database Host: localhost
Username: root
Password: (By default the password is not set.)
Database Name: (Enter the name of the database you just set up.)

It doesn't really matter which package you use as the two of them are very similar. Your choice of package is down to personal preference or a random guess if you like.

That's it! Your done. You now have a WAMP environment on your system and are ready to stop uploading files via FTP after every small change.

Security Concern

I would like to emphasize that this is for a LOCAL server only and shouldn't be connected to the internet without proper security considerations being taken into account. Otherwise your computer may be compromised, and it could be in a matter of hours. Internet servers are barraged by nearly continuous port scans from hackers looking for ones they can take over to serve phishing scams, spam and porn.

I got problem to install wampserver2.0, I had already previous version of wampserver. I uninstall previous wampserver and install wampserver2.0. In the end of installation process an error say install.bat does not execute. and my wampserver not work properly. when I go to start Apache server it cant start and when I test port 80 it says your port 80 actually not in used. Can u reply me the solution

Thanks for your response

Best bet is to completely uninstall everything again. Once that's done, restart your computer and then install the new version. It should work ok then.

Thank you for your kind response

My wampserver now work properly. but Not throw uninstalling process. I uninstall all thing many times and install again and again but problem is not solved so I download additional apache and wampserver and mysql from wampserver official site and install it, now my wampserver work properly.

just curious to know the difference bewteen wampserver and apache friend...which is better for windows xp..i am using apache friend and it is quiet user friendly and easy to install....

I'm not familiar with apache friend but my initial opinion is that you shouldn't worry about wampserver. You mentioned apache friend is user friendly and easy to install so you should stick with it if your happy with it.

“The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.”

RE: Security Concern

Originally Posted by Alan

Security Concern

I would like to emphasize that this is for a LOCAL server only and shouldn't be connected to the internet without proper security considerations being taken into account. Otherwise your computer may be compromised, and it could be in a matter of hours. Internet servers are barraged by nearly continuous port scans from hackers looking for ones they can take over to serve phishing scams, spam and porn.

Setup your firewall (Windows Firewall) or router so that Apache on port 80 does not accept any incoming requests. Actually, you might as well block all requests incoming and outgoing, as it won't make a difference to you. This way your server will be essentially invisible on the internet, but you will still be able to use your computer to browse the web, etc. You will still be able to access your webserver via http://localhost because you are visiting the site from your local machine.

Also, when you are not testing your site, shutdown your WAMP server for added security and peace of mind.